PLNU News

On Wednesday, March 19th PLNU students celebrate the fact that 75% of the school year is complete. More than benchmark toward summer break, this celebration marks the remaining 25% of the school year that is covered by gifts from alumni, donors, churches, corporations, foundations and other sources.

Tuition Freedom Day 2014 celebrates the fact that tuition currently covers only 75% of the education costs for a PLNU student. Never in the history of PLNU has tuition covered the entire cost of a student’s education. The remaining portion is covered through generous financial support PLNU receives as alumni contributions, donor gifts, corporate sponsorships, and foundation support.

The Alumni Association established Tuition Freedom Day in 2008. This year PLNU is partnering with Student Senate, ASB, Sodexo and Bartell Hotels to host the 6th annual event. This celebration aims to increase awareness of generous gifts given to support PLNU students and also to provide an opportunity for students to express their gratitude. After Chapel, students can enjoy coffee and pastries in the ARC (Activities and Recreation Center) while writing thank you notes to alumni, churches, corporations, foundations and other donors who have contributed to their education.

In 2013, 518 thank you notes were written by students during Tuition Freedom Day. This year the Alumni Office hopes to cross the 600 mark! “Whether or not we realized it, each one of us who attended this university was helped by others who gave to subsidize the cost of our education” says Sheryl Smee, Executive Director of Alumni Relations at PLNU. “This has become an annual event to highlight the difference made in students' lives, through generous alumni support, and the impact we can make in the lives of countless future students through our faithful giving.”

(San Diego, Calif. – February 19, 2014) – Thursday, February 20th PLNU will kick off the 19th Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea on the Point Loma campus with featured guest, Samuel Freedman.

An award-winning author, professor and New York Times columnist, Freedman is a master storyteller, known for his insightful, well-researched writing that creates powerful narratives of people engaged with the issues of race, faith, and other issues of social justice faced by modern American culture. Books include Breaking the Line, Jew vs. Jew, Small Victories, Letters to a Young Journalist, and more.

Thursday’s event begins at 7p.m. with a conversation between Freedman and PLNU Journalism Professor, Dean Nelson in Salomon Theatre on PLNU’s main campus. Freedman is also presenting an afternoon workshop on Thursday at 1:30, “Trust Me, I’m A Writer”. Full details and registration information can be found here. The Writer’s Symposium continues with full force into the following week and runs through February 27th. The 19th annual event features a number of workshops and key note conversations with Siddhartha Mukherjee, Jeannette Walls and Anne Lamott.

Writer’s Symposium by the Sea is an annual event that brings interviews with cutting edge creators, life stories, examples of great writing, and evocative conversation that will inspire the reader and writer alike. The evening interviews, conducted by symposium founder Dean Nelson, feature lively conversations about the stories behind the author’s stories. The audience gets to eavesdrop on these exchanges and even interact with the writer during a Q&A session that follows. Specialized afternoon workshops, conducted by published writers, provide tips and insight into the writing process. You are invited to join us and listen in on what some of today’s cutting edge writers have to say! Past guests have included Ray Bradbury, Anne Lamott, Philip Yancey, Dave Eggers, Amy Tan, Bill McKibben, Donald Miller, George Plimpton, and many more.

Dale Schierholt’s film, “Art by Constraint”, premiered before a full crowd at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla on January 17th, 2014. The full documentary aired on local television on San Diego’s KPBS, channel 15. A preview can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/76911164.

Throughout the day, KPBS featured interviews with Adey on the radio at 89.5fm during the KPBS “Morning Edition” and afternoon “All Things Considered” programs and during the 5pm and 6:30pm broadcasts of Evening Edition on KPBS TV.

Since January of 2013, Adey has committed his full attention to creating the immense body of work contained in “Hither and Yon” during a yearlong hiatus from the classroom. This sabbatical allowed him to serve as the first ever artist-in-residence at Scott White Contemporary Art. Throughout this process, Schierholt documented Adey through film and interview. Schierholt successfully captured the essence of the exhibit and Adey’s methodical process within the bounds of a self-realized constraint.

In “Hither and Yon”, Adey utilized a diverse range of materials and techniques to investigate the concept of constraints as a metaphor for the human condition. Adey admits that it's often the constraints and boundaries he sets for himself during the conceptualizing phase that inform his work. “Constraint gives you something to push up against. A tool to make creative decisions” says Adey. With this approach Adey is able to find not only artistic freedom, but also a common thread that unites these seemingly tangential mediums.

A 1994 graduate of PLNU, Adey received his Masters of Fine Arts at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2002, before returning to his alma mater as a member of the faculty in 2003. “Hither and Yon” ran at Scott White Contemporary Art from January 17 to February 15, 2014.

For the past year, Point Loma Nazarene University Professor of Art, David Adey has been on sabbatical, hard at work on his innovative and progressive exhibit, “Hither and Yon”. The culmination of this work occurs Saturday, January 11th with Adey’s opening reception of his premier solo exhibit at Scott White Contemporary Art in La Jolla, California.

In “Hither and Yon”, the result of his yearlong hiatus from the classroom, Adey utilizes a diverse range of materials and techniques to investigate the concept of constraints as a metaphor for the human condition. Each piece within this exhibition has undergone a methodical process for its creation within the bounds of a self-realized constraint. Adey admits that it's often the constraints and boundaries he sets for himself during the conceptualizing phase that inform his work. “Constraint gives you something to push up against. A tool to make creative decisions” says Adey. With this approach Adey is able to find not only artistic freedom, but also a common thread that unites these seemingly tangential mediums.

Some of Adey’s most iconic works in this series involve carefully deconstructed consumer images pulled from various Google searches. Using fragments of skin from hundreds of models and celebrities, he creates elaborate pinned collages reminiscent of complex entomological displays. The piece, Gravitational Radius, uses exclusively fashion and celebrity images. Adey exploits their two-dimensional nature by extruding them into three-dimensional space. Each decontextualized body fragment is transformed into a thin membrane of flesh, as its source and identity are lost. The final product is a homogenized mosaic of push-pinned skin that is macabre by nature, but somehow strikingly beautiful

In Hide, an inventive take on a self-portrait, Adey explores a different method of deconstructing and flattening the human form. Beginning with a three-dimensional scan of his entire body, he creates a triangulated three-dimensional model of himself comprised of over 75,000 triangles. From there, the model is unfolded and flattened to form a two-dimensional record of the entire surface of the artist’s body, all in one piece, without overlaps. This two-dimensional apparition is then laser cut and framed in two adjacent panels to create a diptych resembling a cross between a Dymaxion Map and a Rorschach test.

Other works in “Hither and Yon” encompass a wide range of materials and concepts such as cold war-era electronics, plastic and paper cups and buckets, and a collaborative piece with an Actuary, yet his voice and vision remain clear and consistent throughout the exhibition. Adey has managed to successfully fuse contemporary art concept with formal creation and aesthetic. His work reflects a practiced and methodical process that results in works that are not only visually elaborate, but also intellectually stimulating and conceptually provocative.

Since January of 2013 Adey has committed his full attention to creating this body of work as Scott White Contemporary Art’s first ever artist-in-residence. Scott White Contemporary Art has been supporting Adey throughout the year, allowing him the space, time and freedom to pursue new and exciting directions with his work. Filmmaker Dale Schierholt has also been documenting David through film and interview. The completed project will be a full-length documentary on David Adey with a premier screening at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla on Saturday night and broadcast on KPBS on January 17th. A preview of Dale Schierholt’s documentary can be viewed here.

Prior to this exhibit, Adey’s work was featured at the 2010 California Biennial hosted by the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, CA, and was also included in Here Not There: San Diego Art Now (2010) at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. His solo exhibition at Luis de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles was selected by The Huffington Post as one of ‘Southern California’s Top 10 Exhibitions for 2010’, and a recent exhibition at the La Jolla Athenaeum was named ‘Exhibition of the Year’ by the San Diego Fine Art Society. In addition, David Adey has also exhibited in Miami, Detroit, Boston, Finland and Berlin.

A 1994 graduate of PLNU, Adey received his Masters of Fine Arts at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2002. He returned to his alma mater as a member of the faculty in 2003. “Hither and Yon” runs at Scott White Contemporary Art through February 15, 2014.

PLNU is pleased to welcome Dr. Deborah Erickson as the new dean of the School of Education. Erickson has extensive experience in Christian higher education. She will be coming to PLNU after serving 11 years at California Lutheran University as a faculty member, interim department chair, and, since 2007, assistant dean in the Graduate School of Education. In addition to her work at CLU, she has served on numerous state and national education boards and committees in key leadership roles. She was the president of the California Association of Professors of Educational Administration in 2006-07 and is currently a member of the executive board of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration. She is well versed in both state and national accreditation issues and is currently serving in multiple roles with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Prior to joining CLU, Erickson served as a teacher, vice principal, principal, and district curriculum director in several K-12 districts throughout California.

Erickson received a B.A.E. (elementary education) and an M.A. (integrated study in business and psychology) from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. From there, she went on to earn another M.A. (educational administration) from CSU San Bernardino and her Ed.D. (educational administration) from University of the Pacific.

Erickson brings to PLNU a reputation as a tireless worker and skilled leader as well as an excellent record of scholarship, professional engagement, and community service.

“We are very grateful to the faculty and staff in the School of Education for continuing during this interim period to build on the progress that we have made over the past few years leading up to our NCATE accreditation,” said PLNU provost Dr. Kerry Fulcher. “I especially want to thank Dr. Carol Leighty for stepping in as the interim dean and doing much more than maintaining our programs and processes but actually moving us forward in them. It is on this good foundation that we welcome our new dean. I am excited to have Dr. Erickson joining us at PLNU and look forward to her strategic leadership that will help our School of Education to continue to offer quality programs that meet the needs of the K-12 communities that we serve.

On May 28, the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University presented its original research report, “San Diego’s Food Bank Population: Proﬁle, Analysis, and Solutions.” The report was commissioned by The Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank. The FBEI report involved the ﬁrst comprehensive survey and analysis of the 350,000 San Diego County’s residents who depend on the region’s Food Bank. Field research was conducted at many distribution sites served by the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank and included interviews with more than 550 households receiving food assistance during October 2012.

“It is our intention to provide regional leaders a highly readable economic analysis of a critical topic to all within our community,” said FBEI executive director Randy M. Ataide. “The report draws a portrait of the people needing food assistance and seeks to understand the demographic, economic, and social factors driving that need.”

The vital demographic data in the report helps “puts a face” on the population that the food bank serves. According to PLNU chief economist Lynn Reaser, the face of hunger in San Diego County includes working families living in poverty, seniors, and tens of thousands of children. Unemployment is a factor for many seeking assistance, but most families using the food bank have at least one working adult in the household.

In October 2012, teams of staff and students from Point Loma Nazarene University visited food bank locations throughout San Diego County and surveyed clients while they waited in line for food assistance. The communities included: Central San Diego, San Ysidro, Borrego Springs, Warner Springs, Encinitas, Escondido, Ramona, Fallbrook, Oceanside, Lemon Grove, Ocean Beach, Poway, Campo, Descanso and Pine Valley.

On May 28, the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank and PLNU’s Fermanian Business & Economic Institute held a joint press conference to launch the groundbreaking, 30-page report. Speakers at the press conference included: PLNU’s Chief Economist Dr. Lynn Reaser; Malin Burnham, philanthropist, and joint-funder of the survey; U.S. Congressman Scott Peters; County Supervisor Dave Roberts; and James A. Floros, president & CEO of the San Diego Food Bank.